‘It’s Time for Action': Virginia Educators Drum Up Support for Smaller Class Sizes

More than 150 fed-up Virginia educators packed a local budget hearing this week, braving the threat of bedbugs (yes, really!) to testify for more than three hours about the proven, harmful consequences of outrageously large class sizes.

Organized by the local Prince William Education Association, teachers and staff delivered a powerful and consistent message to the County Board of Supervisors: They want to help every student be successful, but coping with the largest average class sizes in the state is making that very, very hard to do. “This is an issue that affects the entire community, not just teachers, and it’s time for action,” said PWEA President Jim Livingston.

Prince William County educators pack a recent Board of Supervisors meeting to call for smaller class sizes.

Teachers describe classrooms that are so stuffed full with chairs and bodies that it’s nearly impossible to reach every child every day. Students are routinely “put on hold,” said first-grade teacher Kathryn Alford, who has 26 students, including five still learning English and five with special education needs. Alford divides them into seven reading groups, and attempts to meet every day with two of those small groups while the other 20 students work independently.

“I don’t have time for individual attention anymore. The only time they get it is in their small reading group (once or twice a week), and that’s only if I don’t get interrupted by something else…” she said. “I’m not being able to support them—and I hate it! I don’t want to put any of the students who need help on hold.”

And inevitably, bigger classes also mean additional behavioral problems. The noise, the too-close contact with peers, plus the growing frustration by students who can’t get the help they need, all add up to teachers being forced to shift their focus and energy to maintaining discipline, rather than educating children.

With all this in mind, the Prince William Education Association members—and their many parent and community supporters—are calling on county board members to make a meaningful investment in smaller class sizes, for the sake of students and their community.

The Facts About Class Size

It’s a myth that class size doesn’t matter. It does. In fact, it matters greatly if you care about students and their long-term success. According to a Northwestern University professor’s study, published this month by the National Education Policy Center with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research, increasing class sizes will not only harm students’ performance on standardized tests in the short term, but it will also damage their ability to develop critical thinking skills necessary for success in higher education and careers.

Children learn more, and teachers are more effective in smaller class sizes, writes the study’s author, professor Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, in her policy brief, “Does Class Size Matter?” Reducing class sizes can help them perform better on reading and math tests, and those pay-offs are particular great for low-income and minority students. “Money saved today by increasing class sizes will result in more substantial social and educational costs in the future,” she wrote.

Her results echo the findings of the well-known Tennessee STAR study from the 1980s, called “influential” and “credible” by the Brookings Institute. In this study, elementary students and teachers were randomly assigned to either a small class, with an average of 15 students, or to a regular class, with an average of 22 students. This large reduction in class size (seven students, or 32 percent) was found to increase student achievement by an amount equivalent to about three additional months of schooling.

And it’s not just a benefit for young students—there are more than a dozen studies that link smaller classes in middle and high schools with higher achievement, fewer dropouts, better graduation rates, and fewer disciplinary referrals.

Of course, none of these findings particularly surprise Prince William’s teachers, who are living with the consequences of the state’s largest average class sizes. “They don’t have the time to build relationships that will have impact, that will really help their students succeed,” said PWEA president Livingston. “We have to have the time to be able to make those personal connections with those students, in order to help them be as successful as possible.”

Students ‘End Up Falling Through the Cracks’

Chemistry teacher Adrienne Maneno’s classroom at Osbourn Park High School comfortably fits about 20 students. In one class, she has 32. (Across all of her five classes, she has 149 students this year.) Do the math: Does this add up to a great learning experience? “Class size is a huge factor in teaching lab science,” said Maneno. “When I can’t ensure the kids’ safety, I can’t do the labs.”

Maneno attempts to compensate by dividing the class into halves, one engaged in independent seatwork, the other working on the Bunsen burner-type lab experiments that typify high-quality chemistry instruction. But there are always students who need help, and they have to wait, and wait, and wait. Moreover, they need to advocate loudly for themselves.

“When kids raise their hand, they eventually get my attention,” said Maneno. “But there are other kids who need attention and they’re not asking for it, and they end up falling through the cracks.”

Maneno makes clear, like Alford, that she doesn’t blame her school principal or other administrators for the problem. “It’s the hand they’ve been dealt. They’ve been very supportive of moving furniture around, leveling classes out…”

The problem is education funding—or lack of. When the economic recession hit Prince William County and so many other communities in the country, county board members lowered tax rates and reduced school funding. School administrators made up the difference by raising class sizes.

But with the economy on the rebound, and students suffering the consequences, PWEA educators and parents say it’s time to re-invest in student success. On Tuesday, just hours after the Washington Post revealed a bedbug infestation in the county’s hearing rooms, PWEA members showed up in droves, wearing matching t-shirts and gathering petition signatures from parents and community allies.

At the end of the meeting, the board voted to advertise a compromise tax rate, lower than educators and parents had asked for, but higher than the county executive had recommended to the board. But this process will go on for another two months, before the board adopts a final budget at the end of April. In the meantime, the organized efforts of PWEA members, parents, and other community allies will only gather more energy and commitment. “I feel like we’re already successful in raising community awareness,” said Livingston.

Class size is a huge issue in education. When reading this article and seeing a class of 22 called ‘regular’ all I can say is I wish this were true. Our 4th grade classes are 32 this year, our 5th are 30 and 31, most of the rest of the classes are 26 to 28. Our district adds a classroom aid to help when the classes at elementary reach 35. How can anyone think teachers are able to meet individual needs with these numbers?

Tina Gurney

Gosh. Being from California, those class sizes made me smile. Kinder with 34, 1-3 with an average of 28. 4-6 have up to 36. High school teacher responsible for up to 185 students. I wish our whole state would speak out as one voice.

Sharon Poole

I agree with my California colleague…. With 40-44 students in our middle school science labs, I would be happy with 32!!

Wolfgang

Florida has a 20 student limit for class size? In CA, class size is around 35 in MS and 45-50 in HS.
Isn’t this a no brainier? Lower class size means less behavior issues, better engagement, better support, and just better learning.
Why are they so big? Two big reasons:
1- money! Less teachers
2- Teachers are usually so worried about their students, they just won’t walk off on a strike. Everyone knows this, including those that write the rules and shove students in the classrooms.
It’s unfortunate that so many teachers are not willing to unite and so many unions are not willing to draw the line.
3- I have never seen good marketing of teachers. When was the last time you saw a commercial supporting teachers that used a 11th grade male chemistry teacher in the ad? Never
Always, it’s a female 2nd grade teacher with a chalkboard and pictures of apples in the background.
So where’s the marketing money going? Ohhhh, politics…. How’s that working so far?

iva

what about the class size of 51 8th grades in general music room where they sit on regular chairs and do not have space for any activities?

iva

But we have our Kelly Center built of gold.

Mary Cebar-Stano

I teach 29, Four year old Kindergarten students in Milwaukee, WI. I have no assistant or support of any kind. Earlier in the year, I had as many as 32 students. 96% are low income minority students. Class size DOES MATTER!

James M. LeCuyer

Class size is the key to not only student success, but to teacher welfare. You can not keep excellent teachers in a system that works them to shreds. Smaller classes of 15 to 20 allow teachers, who are human, to work in effective ways with needy students. A reasonable work load of 15 to 20 students per class allows teachers to do all the additional non-class work required, such as grading or contacting parents or working one on one with a slow learner. A primary reason no modernizing reforms of education have been made is because so many teachers, especially inner city secondary teachers, are overloaded and unable to do more than stay afloat in a flood of work. A secondary teacher with 180 to 240 students a day is not a teacher at all, but a traffic cop.
Our high school students rate some where near twenty-sixth or lower on international tests. California, where I taught, is one of the lowest performing states. The primary reason for this is overcrowded classes. Classes greater than 20 are far more difficult to teach, and create a hostile atmosphere in student’s minds toward education. Slower kids get left behind, while the faster ones grow bored.
If we limited classes to 20 or fewer students per class, we would see immediate positive results. Small classes have a catalytic effect that will allow educational reform, and give teachers the time to bring such reforms into the classroom.
The present testing programs are not a way to improve education, but a way for testing companies to make money. The present effort of The Business Roundtable and other conservative Republican groups is to reduce the power of teacher unions, which they perceive as primarily Democratic. They do this by attacking teachers, starving school systems and privatizing schools.
Class size reduction is not the only solution to the present disgusting state of our educational system, but it is the first step that must be taken if any other reforms are to be effective.
James M. LeCuyer, jameslecuyer@yahoo.com, United Educators of San Francisco.

Jamie Downing

Washington state is currently gathering petition signatures for our smaller class size initiative(I-1351). Let’s hope we get it on the ballot this fall!!

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